‘I characterized that administration as ‘form over substance.’ They were more concerned with how their guy looked than to do the right thing.” That is John Torell, who was San Diego city auditor from 2005 ...

If you’re a complete debauchery amateur, Vegas is racy. Other than that it’s about as provocative as birthday cake. Considering my 20s, gambling, booze, drugs, and women are a Monday-morning stretch and yawn. The one ...

The La Jolla Playhouse’s 33 Variations, about Ludwig van Beethoven’s obsession with a paltry theme by Diabelli, concluded its run in early May. San Diego theater’s homage to the maestro continues at the Old Globe, ...

Three o’clock in the morning. Looking out a second-story bedroom window. This is the Charlie Simmons/Sheree Dohner once-abandoned barn, now, after more work than I care to think about, transformed into an honest-to-God estate, 15 ...

A few days before the grand opening of the splashy new Dish restaurant-nightclub in Hillcrest, I decided to check out one of its forerunners. Dish had been bombarding my email with publicity releases that glittered ...

‘Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them.” I slumped into my La-Z-Boy as I finished reading this ...

In his latest annual financial disclosure statement, filed last month, San Diego police captain Bob Kanaski reported receiving four tickets to the Chargers-Colts game in November of last year worth a total of $900. Kanaski ...

Thirty Years Ago“Got a bell at Palm and Kettner. Anybody for Palm and Kettner?” The call means someone at that corner has telephoned for a cab. But Taheri, cruising nearby, considers the location of the ...

On the afternoon of April 3, barefoot surfers ran down the concrete steps at Swami’s in Encinitas toward ideal surf conditions. The waves were chest high and clean, with not even the slightest breeze present. ...

Thursday 15“Like a robot making love to a tree,” says odd-pop duo Ghostland Observatory about dousing dance-y funk jams with electronica and pop hooks. But the pair’s known more for their unusual pose in pigtails ...

Clue: At what point pleasure? Describe this location, name the nearest cross-streets, and win a Reader T-shirt. Enter by completing the form below. Last week's place: (clue: Son of a beach) Charles the golden retriever ...

On April 25, the stock of Herbalife Ltd., which sells weight-loss and energy products through multi-level marketing, plunged by 9 percent to $40.08. On that day, San Diego fraud sleuth Barry Minkow had revealed that ...

Last week, Defamation League cofounder MC Chas Lomack, 22, who performs as Khemical Ali, was one of the people arrested in SDSU’s federal drug sting. Lomack was charged with selling cocaine and having marijuana plants ...

Twenty-nine years ago tomorrow – 5/16/79 – the Police played the long-gone Roxy club on Cass Street in Pacific Beach. Broadcast live on 101.5/KGB-FM, the performance was widely bootlegged, the most common version being San ...

“In June 2000, the highly invasive Caulerpa taxifolia — the aggressive algae which has destroyed thousands of acres of the Mediterranean Sea — was discovered [in the Agua Hedionda Lagoon], most likely dumped into the ...

Guitarist Stevie Salas appeared last Wednesday at the Sports Arena, fulfilling his role as musical director for American Idol finalist Jordin Sparks (on tour opening for Alicia Keys). Salas first appeared on the scene in ...

Artist: Three Day Old Beaver Song: “TMNT” (from myspace.com/threedayoldbeaver) Heard By: Tad Wuertz, College Area I thought the music was really good. The guy could play guitar and sing really well. I could imagine if ...

“We played on the rooftop of the venue,” says local ’70s cult bandleader Gary Wilson of an April 26 gig at Sunset Boulevard’s Eighteen-Thirty club. “We went on about 12:45 a.m. I’m surprised the cops ...

Senator George McGovern (left of center), 1972. He swung through town that year in his presidential campaign against Richard “Dick” Nixon. A Democrat and WWII combat veteran, McGovern’s election would have amounted to a referendum ...

To say the least, Speed Racer is colorful. Color-overflowing, to say a little more. Color-engulfed. The live-action version of the late-Sixties made-in-Japan TV cartoon (which I never saw) is of course, in our day and ...